Safety brake-beam support for railway trucks



Sept. 10, 1929. J. M MULLEN 7,

SAFETY BRAKE BEAM SUPPORT FOR RAILWAY TRUCKS Filed Nov. 18. 1927 ATTORN EY Fatented Sept. 10, 1929.

- UNITED STATES JOHN MUMULLEN, OF BUFFALO, NEVT YORK.

SAFETY BRAKE-BEAM. SUPPORT ,FOR RAILWAY TRUCKS.

Application filed November 18, 1927. Serial 110,234,086. I

The present invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in emergency supports for car brake beams on railroad trucks; and consists essentially in providing efiective mechanism for preventing the dropping of the brake beams to the track or roadbed in case of accidental breakage of any of the suspending means therefor.

The invention niay moreover be said to consist in the construction, arrangement and combination of the various parts, and in numerous details and peculiarities of the same, substantially as will be hereinafter more i. described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawing illustrating my inventlon:

Figure l is a plan view of a portion of a car truck, including the spring plank, the brake beams and some adjacent parts, and the emergency supporting angle beams, many of these elements being in outline merely.

Figure 2 is a sectional side elevation of the same, and represents more fully the details of the fastening device forming my present invention.

In the drawing the brake beams are shown at l, 4; the tension rods at 5, 5; and supported parts of the frame at 6, 6; these being merely a few parts in conventional outline to indicate the general mechanism of a car truck and brake beams, without giving the details of the side frames, but suiiicient to show the application and function of my invention and enable it to be understood and practiced by those skilled in the art and familiar with the operation and use of devices of the kind to Which my invention belongs.

Connecting the frames that are essential to constitute a truck is a spring or sand plank lin the form of a channel, havingraised parallel flanges 2, 2, at the edges, Near each end of the sand plank lare depending hang-I ers 3, the upper ends 7 of which are hooked over the flanges 2 of the channel plank 1, said hangers 3 being rigidly secured tojthe flanges Q'by means of bolts or other securing devices as: clearly indicated int he various figures.- Each'hanger 3 drops a certain distance below z: the sand plank 1, see Figures 2 and 3, and this lower portion is provided with an angular or preferablya right angled aperture, having a vertical part 11 and gaehorizontal par-t ll), said slots 10 and 11 which make up the aper 1 ture being of substantial length and width or of such size. as will enable them toeasily receive and accommodatethe'flanges of the an gle beams that are passed through them in the manner which ,willbepresently specifical 1y stated. I

Supported in the right angled apertures ofthe hangers 3 that are opposite to each other at each side of the truck, as shown in Figure 1, is a horizontal beam of angle irontwhich is passed horizontally through the vertical and horizontal slots of vthe apertures in the hanger and which can easily be moved longis tudinally in said slots. i There are thus two of these beams, and eacho'ne has a horizontal part 8 thatipasses through the horizontal part 10 of the aperture in the hangers 3 and alsohas a verticalpart 9 that passes through the Vere tical part 11 of the aperture in each hanger 3.

It is ofthehighest importance, moreover, i that these angle beams having the Pflan'ges 8" and 9 as explained, when once they have been properly, positioned, should be immovably kept in such positionuntil for any reasonit becomes necessary tortake themout or adjustthem, and for the purpose of keeping them' firmly in such position I liave devised special means for doing this eilectively. It will be understood that the flanges 8 and 9 it quite closely within the slots 10and11,"but not so closely butwhat the angle beams may be 95 slipped longitudinally through the slots and thus longitudinally adjusted when they are originally introduced through the h angers 1' but any small deflection or bending ofthe straight lines of one or the other of these 8 as suitable parts to bend or flex out of their normal straight horizontal form in order'to make these obstruct ng and anchoring irregularities or flexures 1n the edges of the angle beams. I can accomplish this by the use of any suitable tool, an example of which I have shown in Figure 4. There the bending tool is shown as having a handle 18 and an angular head 15 which is provided with a straight slot 14. This slotted head engages loosely the horizontal flange 8 of theangle beam and then if thehandle 13 be bent or moved slightly in the direction shown by the arrow which is towards the vertical flange 9 the effect will be to bend the edge of the flange 8 upwardly as at 12 and if this is done alongside of the hanger 3 there will be formed a small elevated projection, tit, or raised point which will strike the hanger if an attempt is made to longitudinally move the angle beam. In

' making these bends in the straight edge of the angle beam I select spots immediately adjoining the hangers 3 but on opposite sides of the pair of hangers, close up against the hangers, sothat the raised tits will be close against the two hangers and thus prevent any longitudinal adjustment of the angle beam in either direction. It will be understood obviously that the flexing of the edge of the angle beam to form the raised projection 12 may take place in a great variety of different ways and need not always be done as indicated in Figure 4. Changes and extension of the idea an modifications of the specific results in the way of mechanical forms may be made with wide latitude within the scope of the appended claim and I wish to lay as broad claim upon the idea of providing anglebeams with integralanchoring lugs bent therefrom after insertion into supporting hangers.

What I claim, 1s: r

In a safety brake beam support, the combination with a truckframe and brake beam, of a, channeled sand plank, 'rectangularly apertured hangers carried by the sand plank, each aperture having a horizontal and a verti cal slot, and a right-angled beam formed with horizontal and vertical flanges which pass closely through the said horizontal and vertical slots in the apertured hangers, said beam having the edge of one of its flanges at points closely contiguous to the hangers bent from its normal straight and flat form to form raised lugs closely adjoining the hangers to prevent any further longitudinal movement of the beam after once being adjusted to proper position, and thus assist in anchoring the beam in a relatively immovable position, said anchoring lugs being imparted to the beam by flexing its edge after its insertion in the hangers.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix my signature.

JOHN MCMULLEN. 

